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Friday, December 20, 2013

Review: The Spider by Jennifer Estep

Title: The Spider

Author: Jennifer Estep

Series: Elemental Assassin, book 10

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Pocket Books

Source: Review copy from publisher

Format: E-book

“How
did I end up in a career where I always have blood on my hands? Well, let me tell
you a story about an assassin who thought she could do no wrong. . . .
Ten years ago. A blistering hot August night. I remember like it was yesterday.
The night I, Gin Blanco, truly became the Spider. Killing people is what I do
best, especially now that I’ve honed my Ice and Stone magic. But back then, I
had yet to learn one very important rule: arrogance will get you, every single
time.
This particular job seemed simple: murder a crooked building contractor with
ties to ruthless Fire elemental Mab Monroe. My mentor, Fletcher Lane, had some
misgivings, but I was certain that I had the situation under control . . .
right up until I exposed my weaknesses to a merciless opponent who exploited
every single one of them. There’s a reason assassins aren’t supposed to feel
anything. Luckily, a knife to the heart can fix that problem, especially when
I’m the one wielding it…”

The Spider is
the tenth installment in the Elemental
Assassin series by Jennifer Estep.

In
The Spider with see a younger Gin, an
arrogant and impatient version of her. Despite her mentor’s (Fletcher)
misgivings we see her run into a job without much research and we see her fail
grandly. This failure in her early life/profession was what made Gin into the
woman we have known for the last few years. This job taught her to do research,
not to run blindly in a situation and more important to be patient.

This
has been one of the hardest reviews to write for this series. I wanted to love The Spider, but sadly I didn’t. Why? Because
I had three problems with it, problems that didn’t let me like this book as
much as I was expecting to like it.

My
biggest problem with this book was that there was no mystery at all. Since the
very first chapters I knew what was going on and how everything was going to
pan out. Everything was so clear that it was almost unbelievable that Gin
couldn’t see it for herself. The enjoyment of reading a book diminishes greatly
when by the second chapter you already know who is the bad guy and how
everything is going to end and that was the case with The Spider. Ok, I’m been a bit unfair here, there was a nice
surprise at the end with one of the characters involved in the story, but by
them it was too late to be a remarkable surprise.

My
second problem with this book was that it was rife with repetition. We had this
problem with some of previous books in the series, last two books were better
in this aspect, but sadly The Spider
went back to The Repetition Party. It was so bad at times that I ended up
skimming a lot of it, and you know it’s not a good sign when you are skimming a
book of a series you love. *sighs*

My
third and last problem with The Spider
was the cameos of people in Gin’s current life. My problem with the cameos was
that half of them felt forced into the story and completely unnecessary.

When
the first cameo happened I was really happy to see that person there, when the
second happened the coincidence of meeting that person was a bit doubtful, when
the third happened it was just too much and when the fourth happened… you get
the idea. My problem is that we see everybody; when I say everybody is
everybody, From Xavier, to Roslyn, to Bria to Owen and more. They all make an
appearance here. I’m not exaggerating; even Warren is somehow included in the
story with the mention of his store, Country Daze.

“While the pancakes cooked, I also crisped
up some bacon, put on a pot of chicory coffee, and made dreamsicle fruit
smoothies with fresh- squeezed orange juice, vanilla yogurt, and a drizzle of
sourwood honey that Jo-Jo had bought at some store called Country Daze,
according to the label.”

Why
she doesn’t mention the yogurt brand or where she bought the oranges? As I said
before, sadly the inclusion of these characters didn’t feel like an organic
part of the story but more like something forced and far-fetched.

Despite
the problems I had with The Spider I
still love Gin and love this series. I just hope in next book Gin is the
kickass-strong heroine she’s supposed to be. I also hope there won’t be much
repetition and hope to see something different in the story than bad guy
kicking Gin’s ass and Gin surviving only thanks to Jo Jo’s air magic. I want to
see Gin comes to her power.

Next
book in the series, Poison Promise,
is scheduled to be release on July 29th, 2014. I’m sure going to
read it because after ten books, I still have hope Gin can become the powerful
elemental we been hearing about since Spider’s
Bite (first book).

The thing is that almost all the character we have seen in the last 9 books made an appearance in this installment that is supposed to had happened 10 years ago. The mention of the store was a reference to another character, Warren, who is the owner of the store. Mrs. Estep couldn't add him in a cameo, so she mentioned his store. It was just too much.